Help me improve my video quality!

[Keith Mitchell]

OK, I'm just going to upload this extremely humble, unedited video and ask for guidance. I know that it will help me to learn, and maybe a few others will learn too. I'm going to start doing real estate videos soon (got my Part 107) and trying to experiment to learn the best settings, but it's very slow going.

Here is the Vimeo link:

I tried to just upload my file into this window using the Upload button that is provided, but it said my file size is too large. If there is a better way for me to present the video please let me know.

I set up my camera as advised by an online "expert" on YouTube but I'm not too happy with the results.

I tried fixing it in post (white balance, contrast, color correction, sharpness, saturation) but ended up with lots of noise and even more aliasing and moire. I use Power Director 16. Maybe not the most expensive editor out there but really performs well and has all the functionality. I really don't think that my post-processing issues are related to the video editing software I use.

My complaints are:
- Way too flat (sure, it was a very cloudy day with no sun, but this looks like a white gauze was placed over the camera lens)
- I see both aliasing and moire, especially on some of the rooftops
- Colors are dull - I want sharp, vibrant colors!
- Slightly out of focus - I should have been able to fix this before recording but I didn't notice it on my iPad Air screen.
- I really REALLY tried to rotate my P4P very smoothly and slow along the vertical (yaw) axis, but it still looks a little bit "jerky."

Settings:
P4 Pro; 2720x1530; 60FPS; H.264; very cloudy day, so no filters used; D-Cinelike; Sharpness -1; Contrast -3; Saturation -2; White Balance - Cloudy Day; Manual camera settings: ISO 100; f5.6; Shutter 120; 2.7K at 60fps (my computer is a bit too slow for 4K video, so I try to record in 2K and publish in 1080 HD); MP4 format; NTSC; Tripod mode.

Questions:
- How would you have changed the camera settings in DJI Go 4?
- What would you do to improve it in post?
- Is this just what I should expect on very cloudy days?
- Any other suggestions?

Thanks for any constructive help!

 

[WV. Rootman]

Everyone will give you slightly different views on how to setup things. I’m no expert by any means. I sure the camera settings were to eliminate the sharp contrast difference when filming. That is important to eliminate the too bright and too dark. They may be fine. In your processing you need to add more contrast. It will help get rid of the haze and bring out the color. You can play with levels and that could help also. Then add more saturation. 2 k is fine to film in. Not a problem. I believe it is mainly a post processing problem.

There are professionals that can help you more, but that is a start.

 

[bsartist]

What, if anything, did you do in postproduction (in your video editor)?

 

[Keith Mitchell]

Everyone will give you slightly different views on how to setup things. ...Then add more saturation. 2 k is fine to film in. Not a problem. I believe it is mainly a post processing problem.
There are professionals that can help you more, but that is a start.

Thanks for taking the time to help! Adding contrast is probably the big thing. I probably overcorrected and did too much the first time I worked on it.

 

[Keith Mitchell]

What, if anything, did you do in postproduction (in your video editor)?

The video is straight out of the camera. I originally worked on it in post and I think I did too much because it just looked horrible. I probably over-corrected (and then some!). Then I thought that, since this is a forum for Phantom pilots to share ideas and help each other, I would just throw the video out there with no editing and see what suggestions I get. Personally I think that the overcast conditions are the main problem, but I'm not sure and wanted to get feedback from folks with more experience in videography and color correction. Thanks for asking.
By the way, I DID work on it more after I posted. Here is my best effort in post-processing:

 

[With The Birds]

The first thing you should do always is adjust your luminance levels (white point and black point) using your scopes to get you just below clipping. This is especially important when your takes are shot with any of the flat settings. I don’t know how this is done in power director but I’m sure it’s oissible, it is an essential step in the post workflow.

 

[Keith Mitchell]

The first thing you should do always is adjust your luminance levels (white point and black point) using your scopes to get you just below clipping. This is especially important when your takes are shot with any of the flat settings. I don’t know how this is done in power director but I’m sure it’s oissible, it is an essential step in the post workflow.

I think I know what you mean. There is a place to adjust white balance in Power Director. I'll start with that when I color correct from now on.

 

[With The Birds]

I think I know what you mean. There is a place to adjust white balance in Power Director. I'll start with that when I color correct from now on.

White balance is a different consideration.

Go find Frederick Hagan on YouTube. He has some fantastic tutorials. Great place to start

 

[Keith Mitchell]

White balance is a different consideration.

Go find Frederick Hagan on YouTube. He has some fantastic tutorials. Great place to start

Yes! I've been watching him a lot the past few days. What a great teacher! I'm just not a great student yet, I suppose. In fact, trying to apply what I'm learning from Frederick (I watched his P4 camera settings and his color correction tutorials) and let it sink in is part of what got me going on this. Good to know I'm looking in the right places!

 

[RunningWithScissors]

My complaints are:
- Way too flat (sure, it was a very cloudy day with no sun, but this looks like a white gauze was placed over the camera lens)

I'm reminded of this all too often, proper lighting will either make or break your photography. You can do a lot of amazing things in post-processing but, trying to add a missing key component can be challenging.

 

[bsartist]

You set contrast at -3 presumably so you can preserve dynamic range to be recovered later. As other posters wrote, you then need to do some work in post to recover them. I don’t know what software you are using to edit and whether you have scopes. But as referenced above you need to lower the blacks and probably raise the highlights to get that contrast back that you deliberately sacrificed with the -3 setting. Once that’s done we can look at color balance and saturation.

 

[Keith Mitchell]

You set contrast at -3 presumably so you can preserve dynamic range to be recovered later. As other posters wrote, you then need to do some work in post to recover them. I don’t know what software you are using to edit and whether you have scopes. But as referenced above you need to lower the blacks and probably raise the highlights to get that contrast back that you deliberately sacrificed with the -3 setting. Once that’s done we can look at color balance and saturation.

OK, yes, that is exactly what I did by setting contrast to -3, as recommended by Frederick Hagan on his YouTube channel. I'll see if I can figure out how to lower the blacks and raise highlights in Power Director. Thanks!